Hartford Business Journal

4 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | NOVEMBER 2, 2026 By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com A fter 27 years in downtown Middletown, Attention to Detail had to hustle in July to move its automotive customization business to a new home in Newington over a single weekend. The scramble brought the nearly 40-year-old company to a renovated and expanded 20,070-square-foot facility, giving it more room to outfit commercial vehicles, offer automotive technology services and grow retail sales. But the opportunity came at a cost. The relocation required an investment exceeding $5 million and a major renovation complicated by competing deadlines. The city of Middletown bought Atten- tion to Detail's longtime home at 195 deKoven Drive for $3 million in 2024 for a planned waterfront redevelop- ment, giving the business 18 months to relocate. Although the redevelopment stalled, the company still had to leave. The city now plans to demolish the building and use the site for temporary parking. After an exhaustive search, Atten- tion to Detail's owners, Matthew D. Pensiero and William Murphy, found a new home in the summer of 2025, paying $3.2 million for Progressive Casualty Insurance's 16,259-square- foot former claims center at 40 Commerce Court in Newington. The move, however, was complicated when Progressive did not vacate the Newington building until April, three months later than expected. That left just a few months for a major overhaul of the property before Attention to Detail could relocate. By July, the company was a month past its departure deadline in Middle- town. City officials had not evicted the business but were pressing it to move. Pensiero said the company received verbal approval to occupy the Newington building on a Thursday in mid-July and immediately began moving. "We had seven containers here full of our products," Pensiero said. "We were moving in and doing things around (the) contractors." Need for speed Despite the sprint to the finish, the move had been years in the making. Pensiero and Murphy say they spent a decade fielding unsolicited offers from developers before agreeing to sell their Middletown property to the city. The partners expected the sale proceeds would largely finance their relocation. Instead, rising construction costs helped push the investment above $5 million, Pensiero said. The partners covered the shortfall out of pocket, preferring not to borrow. "Bill and I have always been very conservative and we kind of knew for a long time something like this was coming and we saved," Pensiero said. The pair credit Bloomfield-based PDS Engineering & Construction with helping them navigate the tight schedule and control costs. The contractor oversaw the design, reno- vation and roughly 4,000-square-foot addition to the Newington property, carefully preserving materials during demolition for reuse in the project. PDS also helped evaluate potential locations, prepare budget projections and seek land-use approvals, appearing with the owners before town boards. Murphy said the company's experience developing automotive facilities across Connecticut was especially valuable. Bill Jodice, owner of PDS Engineering & Construction, said speed was a principal challenge in the renovation project. "I'd say the primary requirement was getting in here really fast," Jodice said. Shifting business Attention to Detail began in West Hartford in 1987, when Pensiero, now 62, founded the business with a focus on automotive detailing. Murphy, whose sister, Lynn, is married to Pensiero, joined the company a little more than a decade later. At the time, Murphy was planning to leave his job with a national automo- tive accessories company, frustrated by its increasingly complex bureaucracy. "And being my brother-in-law, we got to talking about him getting out of the corporate world and me needing more offerings and then partnered up back in 1998," Pensiero said. The resulting partnership combined automotive detailing with aftermarket vehicle customization, primarily serving automobile dealerships. Early services included replacing factory cloth uphol- stery with leather interiors and adding power sunroofs. Dealerships could offer these upgrades to customers without performing the work themselves, contracting with Attention to Detail to handle the installations. The partners initially operated in approximately 2,000 square feet leased in the former Grody Crowley Chevrolet dealership in West Hartford before relocating to Middletown in 1999. At the time, they had about a half-dozen employees. Today, the company employs about 50 people, and its services have changed along with the vehicles it works on. Despite its name, Attention to Detail no longer concentrates on cleaning and polishing vehicles. Pensiero said the company gradually phased out detailing as it developed more specialized automotive services. These now include vehicle accessories and customization, window tinting, paint-protection prod- ucts and commercial vehicle outfitting. Equipping commercial vans and trucks with shelving, storage and other equipment for contractors, service technicians and other commercial customers has become a major growth opportunity. The Newington facility provides a more efficient workflow for these installations, allowing the company to pursue more fleet-related business, the owners said. Pensiero estimates the facility can accommodate a 50% increase in commercial fleet outfitting work without another expansion. The partners also see opportunity in increasingly common driver-assistance systems, including parking assist, auto- matic braking and lane-change alerts. Next phase The Newington property also gives the company more room to serve retail customers and expand. The owners expect the building's more prominent, roughly 2,000-square- foot retail showroom to encourage customers to visit the business directly and national distributors to provide product displays. The partners also have town approval to add another 3,500 square feet to the building. "Now that we have a better facility and nicer customer-friendly environment, I think the retail sector will start to jump," Murphy said. "We're seeing more of our suppliers coming to us and wanting to be part of this atmosphere." Their new property also offers signifi- cantly more parking than the Middle- town location, where the company had to rent off-site parking a half mile away to handle fleet customers. For Pensiero, that means less time spent shuffling vehicles before the workday begins. In Middletown, he arrived an hour early to move up to 20 vehicles and clear parking spaces for customers. "What a difference," Pensiero said. "There was nowhere for customers to park. There was nowhere for employees to park. I was losing it." Pensiero said feedback from customers and suppliers has been especially encouraging. "They come in here and tell us: 'You guys have a place that nobody has,'" Pensiero said. "So, that makes us feel good, that we made the right decision." Moving Forward Displaced from Middletown, automotive customization business expands in Newington Deal Watch Attention to Detail owners Matthew D. Pensiero (left) and William Murphy inside the company's new facility in Newington. HBJ Photo | Michael Puffer Bill Jodice AT A GLANCE Attention to Detail Industry: Automotive Customization & Commercial Vehicle Outfitting Top Executives: Matthew D. Pensiero & William Murphy, Co-Owners HQ: 40 Commerce Court, Newington Employees: 50 Website: addittoit.com Contact: 860-347-0141

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